Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-04-08
DIR. TALMAGE HOME AGAIN
AFTER PREACHING AND LECTURING
IN FIFTEEN DIFFERENT CITIES.

Cordially Greeted by a Vast Congrega-
ton, the Eminent Divine Delivers a
Sermon from the Second Chapter of
Revelations: ga Live Church."
BROOKLYN, April 3-The Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage, DID,, has returned from the west,
after an absence of nearly three weeks in
which he preached and lectured in fifteen
cities to immense throngs. A vast congrega-
was present at the Tabernacle this morning
and joined with fine effect in singing the
hymn which begins:
Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
Does his successive journeys run.
DIR. Talmages subject was "a Live
Church, and his text Revelations ii, s, 9:
ssUnto the angel of the church in Smyrna
write: These things saith the first and the
last, which was dead and is alive. I know
thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, but
thou art rich"
Smyrna was a great city of the ancients,
bounded ON three sides by mountains. 1t
was the central emporium of the Levantine
trade. In that prosperous and brilliant city
there was a Christian church established.
After it had existed for while it was
rocked down by an earthquake. 1t was re-
built. Then it was consumed by a confag-
ration that swept over the entire city. That
church went through fire, and trouble, and
disaster, but kept on to great spiritual pros
perity The fact was that church had the
grace of God, an ever active principle. Had
it been otherwise, all the grandeur of archl-
lecture and all the pomp of surroundings
would only have been the ornament of death
the garlands of a coffin, the plumeS of
hearse
1t may be profitable to consider what are
the elements of a live church.
I remark, in the first place, that one char
acteristic of such a church is punctuality In
meeting its engagements. All ecclesiastical
institutions have financial relations, and they
ought to meet their obligations just as GER
tainly as men meet their obligations at the
bank. When church of God is not as faith
full in its promises as the Bank of England
it ceases to be church of God 1t ought to
be understood that prayers cannot paint a
church, and prayers cannot pay the winters
coal bill, and prayers cannot meet the msur-
ance, and that, while prayers can do thou
sand things, there are a thousand things that
prayers cannot do. Prayer for any particu
lar church will never reach heaven high I'M
less it goes down pocket deep. In my church
at the west there was a man OF comfortable
means, who used to pray for his pastor In
such elongated style that he became
nuisance to the prayer meeting; asking God,
in prayer that was almost without ceaslng,
that the pastor might be blessed in his basket
and in his store, while the fact was he never
paid anything. If we pray for the advance
ment of the church and do not out OF our
means contribute to its advancement, our
prayer is only mockery. Let the church Of
God then meet it's obligations on the outside,
and let the members of the congregation
meet the obligations on the inside, and the
church will be financially prosperous
Let me say, also, that there must be pune
tuality in the attendance on the house of the
Lord. If the service begins at 1880 in the
morning, the regular congregation of a live
church will not come at 1O:45 If the service
is to begin at 7:30 in the evening, the regular
congregation of live church will not come
at As. In some churches have noticed the
people are always tardy. There are some
people who are always late. They were born
too late and the probability is they will die
too late. The rrlstling of dresses up the aisle,
and the slamming of doors, and the treading
Of heavy feet, is poor inspiration for minis
ter 1t requires great abstraction IN a
pastors mind to proceed with the prelimin-
ary exercises of the church when one-haf of
the audience seated are looking around to see
the other half come in. Such difference of
attendance upon the house of God may be
difference of time pieces, but the live church
of which I am speaking ought to go by rail-
road time, and that is pretty well understood
in all our communities. There is one hymn
that ought to be sung in great many Chris
tian families on Sabbath morning: early,
nv God, without delay, haste to seek thy
place"
Another characteristic of a live church is
the fact that all the people participate in the
exercises. A stranger can tell by the way the
first tune starts whether there is any life
there A church that does not sing is dead
church. 1t is awful to find cold drizzle of
music coming down from the organ loft
while all the people beneath sit in silence.
When a tune wanders around, lonely and I'M
befriended, and is finally lost amid the arches
because the people do not join in it. there is
not much melody made rOSto the Lord In
heaven they all sing, though some there can
not sing half as well as others. The Metho-
dist church has sung all around the world and
gone from conquest to conquest. among other
things, because it is a singing church; and
any Christian church organization that with
enthusiasm performs this part of its duty
will go on from triumph to triumph. A
church of God that can sing can do anything
that ought to be DONE We go forth into this
holy war with the Bible in one hand and
hymn book in the other. Oh! we who used to
sing the praises of the Lord and have got out
of the habit, take your harps down from the
willows. I am glad to know that, as
church, we are making advancement in this
respect When came to be your pastor we
had an excellent choir in the little chapel, and
they sang very sweetly to us Sabbath by
Sabbath but ever and anon there was
trouble, for you know that the choirs in the
United States are the Waterloos where the
great battles go on. One Sunday they will
sing like angels, and the next Sunday they
will be mad and will not sing at all. We re-
solved to settle all the difficulties and have
one skillful man at the organ and one man to
do the work of precentor; and now, from
Sabbath to Sabbath, the song comes up like
the voice of mighty thunderings.
Let those refuse to sing
Who never knew our God;
But children of the heavenly king
Should speak their joys abroad.
On the way to triumph that never ends,
and pleasures that never Ge-sing!
Another characteristic of live church is
a flourishing Sabbath school. 1t is too late
in the history of the Christian church to
argue the benefit of such an institution. The
Sabbath school is not supplement to the
church; it is it's right arm. But you say
there are dead churches that have Sabbath
CoI ,1,ofb